Updates

DACA-Protected Immigrants Granted In-State Tuition in Georgia

David Goldman / AP

A judge in Georgia ruled the state’s university system must allow immigrants granted temporary immunity by the federal government to pay in-state tuition. Until now, the Board of Regents, the government panel that controls state universities and colleges, said that immigrants who qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a 2012 Obama administration program protecting some undocumented immigrants from deportation, could not prove “lawful presence,” and therefore were not afforded in-state tuition. The Board of Regents has appealed the judge’s ruling, which was released Tuesday. Republican members of the state legislature have also discussed a bill that would further limit in-state tuition to students with legal status beyond DACA. As I’ve reported, without in-state tuition, the 28,000 undocumented immigrants in Georgia who have qualified for DACA are financially hindered from attending state universities and colleges. Georgia is one of three states—the others being Alabama and South Carolina—that in some ways ban undocumented immigrants from attending public universities and colleges. In Georgia, undocumented immigrants are still banned from attending the top five state universities in the state. The status of DACA is unclear in the upcoming Trump administration.

Paul Ryan Re-Elected House Speaker

All House Republicans, save one, voted Tuesday to re-elect Paul Ryan to another term as speaker of the House. Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted for Daniel Webster, the Republican congressman from Florida. On the Democratic side, Nancy Pelosi was re-elected minority leader, though four of her fellow Democrats—Representatives Jim Cooper of Ohio, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Kathleen Rice of New York, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—voted against her. Cooper and Rice voted for Tim Ryan, the Ohio Democratic congressman; Kind voted for Cooper; and Sinema for Congressman John Lewis.

Megyn Kelly Leaves Fox News for NBC

(Brendan McDermid / Reuters)

Megyn Kelly, the anchor who is one of Fox News’s biggest stars, is leaving the network for NBC, NBC News announced Tuesday. There she will anchor a new one-hour daytime program, as well as a new Sunday evening news magazine show, and will contribute to NBC’s news, political, and special-events coverage, the network said. Kelly, whose contract with Fox was due to expire later this year, had been wooed by several networks. The New York Timesadds: “Fox News’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, … had offered Ms. Kelly more than $20 million a year to stay after her current contract expires this year.” She’d been fielding offers less than that amount, the Times reported, but even a modest salary increase would make Kelly one of the highest-paid anchors in the country. The move would add to a period of instability at Fox News, the top-ranked cable news network. Fox lost its chief, Roger Ailes, over the summer amid allegations of sexual harassment. Kelly, in a statement, said:

Ford canceled plans Tuesday to open a $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and will instead invest $700 million to expand a plant in Michigan. The proposed plant, which will build electric and self-driving cars, will create about 700 jobs, the company said. Ford had taken flak from President-elect Donald Trump for its plans to invest heavily in foreign-based factories, especially those in Mexico. Trump even took credit this November for a decision Ford made not to close a plant in Kentucky—a claim Ford later called untrue. This time, Ford’s CEO, Mark Fields, preempted any tweet by Trump when he toldCNN Money the company “didn't cut a deal with Trump. We did it for our business.” The statement Ford released Tuesday backed this up, and outlined a broader plan that seems to underline how this transition has less to do with U.S. politics, and more to do with the future of cars. Instead of investing money into the Ford Focus—which the factory in Hermosillo, Mexico, was slated to assemble—the redirected millions will expand Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant. That plant is part of a larger move to introduce 13 new electric vehicles in the next five years, and to invest $4.5 billion into electric cars by 2020.

Earlier Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that while the watchdog might be “unfair,” Congress should focus on more pressing matters.

Our original post at 7:20 a.m. ET

House Republicans voted Monday without notice to limit the authority of the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which was established in 2008 after three members of Congress were jailed for corruption. Congressman Robert Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, announced the move late Monday, adding a new Office of Congressional Complaint Review would report to the House Ethics Committee. The House committee has previously been accused of ignoring allegations of corruption by lawmakers. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader, opposed the change, which came a day before Congress begins its new term. More here

For the Second Time, a Federal Judge Finds Dylann Roof Competent to Stand Trial

Randall Hill / Reuters

A federal judge ruled for the second time on Monday that Dylann Roof, the man convicted of shooting nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church in 2015, is competent to stand trial and represent himself. Roof’s lawyers had filed a petition last week for another competency hearing, saying new details had emerged since the judge’s first ruling in November. Federal law says a person is competent to stand trial unless that person is “unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense … ” Roof was evaluated over the weekend by a psychiatrist, and the results were presented to the court during a closed hearing Monday, presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel for the District of South Carolina. Gergel said “the serious nature of the proceedings” called for re-evaluation so the court could “confirm there were no material changes in his mental status.” Roof was convicted in December of all 33 counts against him, including 18 that carry the death penalty. His trial enters the sentencing phase Wednesday. Roof has said he’ll represent himself, and will offer neither witnesses nor evidence in his defense—only an opening statement. Jurors will then determine whether Roof, a self-avowed white supremacist, will spend the rest of his life in prison, or whether the state should execute him.

Deadly Weather Hits the U.S. South

Winds destroyed a home in Mount Olive, Mississippi / AP

Heavy winds and rains lashed the Southern U.S. Monday, leading to the deaths of four people in southeastern Alabama after a tornado threw a tree into their home. All four victims were inside during the tornado, one of many reported in the area, that was accompanied by strong winds, rain, and hail. In some places, between four and 10 inches of rain fell over the weekend, with flood warnings posted for much of the Gulf Coast. The National Weather Service had preliminary reports indicating six tornadoes touched down in Alabama and Mississippi, though no other deaths have been attributed to Monday’s storm. The four victims lived in the town of Rehobeth, in a mobile-home community, and by early Tuesday morning emergency workers were still trying to pull three other people from the same crumpled house. Winds all over the South and along the Gulf Coast snapped power lines and left thousands of people in the dark. They also caused air-travel delays, including at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airports.

Syrian Rebels Halt Talks With Government, Citing Ceasefire Violations

(Bassam Khabieh / Reuters)

Syria’s main rebel groups say they are suspending talks with the Syrian government over what they allege are violations of the ceasefire that was announced last week. In a statement, the rebels said the Syrian government “continued their onslaught and committed many big breaches especially in the Barada Valley, Eastern Ghouta, Hama suburbs, and Daraa.” The government argues that some of these areas don’t fall under the area covered by the ceasefire, which was announced last week by Russia and Turkey. The two countries said they would act as guarantors of the truce while negotiators meet this month in Astana, the Kazakh capital.

Freezing all discussions regarding the Astana or any other consultations regarding the ceasefire agreement until it is fully implemented pic.twitter.com/hLugie8yqU

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Despite the easing of taboos and the rise of hookup apps, Americans are in the midst of a sex recession.

These should be boom times for sex.

The share of Americans who say sex between unmarried adults is “not wrong at all” is at an all-time high. New cases of HIV are at an all-time low. Most women can—at last—get birth control for free, and the morning-after pill without a prescription.

If hookups are your thing, Grindr and Tinder offer the prospect of casual sex within the hour. The phrase If something exists, there is porn of it used to be a clever internet meme; now it’s a truism. BDSM plays at the local multiplex—but why bother going? Sex is portrayed, often graphically and sometimes gorgeously, on prime-time cable. Sexting is, statistically speaking, normal.

Donald Trump likes to pit elite and non-elite white people against each other. Why do white liberals play into his trap?

“I want them to talk about racism every day,” Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former strategist, told The American Prospectlast year. “If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”

Bannon was tapping into an old American tradition. As early as the 1680s, powerful white people were serving up racism to assuage the injuries of class, elevating the status of white indentured servants over that of enslaved black people. Some two centuries later, W. E. B. Du Bois observed that poor white people were compensated partly by a “public and psychological wage”—the “wages of whiteness,” as the historian David Roediger memorably put it. These wages pit people of different races against one another, averting a coalition based on shared economic interests.

Another big project has found that only half of studies can be repeated. And this time, the usual explanations fall flat.

Over the past few years, an international team of almost 200 psychologists has been trying to repeat a set of previously published experiments from its field, to see if it can get the same results. Despite its best efforts, the project, called Many Labs 2, has only succeeded in 14 out of 28 cases. Six years ago, that might have been shocking. Now it comes as expected (if still somewhat disturbing) news.

In recent years, it has become painfully clear that psychology is facing a “reproducibility crisis,” in which even famous, long-established phenomena—the stuff of textbooks and TED Talks—might not be real. There’s social priming, where subliminal exposures can influence our behavior. And ego depletion, the idea that we have a limited supply of willpower that can be exhausted. And the marshmallow test, where our ability to resist gratification in early childhood predicts our achievements in later life. And the facial-feedback hypothesis, which simply says that smiling makes us feel happier.

At an inaugural desert festival of yogis and spirit guides like Russell Brand, an exclusive industry grapples with consumerism, addiction, and the actual meaning of wellness.

I first felt reality shift when, at 7 a.m. on a Saturday, there was a line for a class called Body Blast Bootcamp, and I worried that there wouldn’t be enough room for everyone.

The draw to this explicitly not-fun undertaking, others in line told me, was that we would be glad to have done it when it was over. We all made it in, and the workout studio was a carpeted conference room where an Instagram-famous instructor with a microphone headset was waiting to give us high fives. “The hardest step is showing up!”

Once we started working out, a person walked around apparently taking Instagram videos, and people were not bothered by this. Another brought a mini tripod to get some shots of herself in action. There was shouting and a Coldplay house remix. Someone offered me a box of alkaline water, and I drank it because no neutral water was available.

“Rich people don’t get their own ‘better’ firefighters, or at least they aren’t supposed to.”

As multiple devastating wildfires raged across California, a private firefighting crew reportedly helped save Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s home in Calabasas, TMZ reported this week. The successful defense of the $50 million mansion is the most prominent example of a trend that’s begun to receive national attention: for-hire firefighters protecting homes, usually on the payroll of an insurance company with a lot at risk.

The insurance companies AIG and Chubb have publicly talked about their private wildfire teams. AIG has its own “Wildfire Protection Unit,” while Chubb—and up to a dozen other insurers—contract with Wildfire Defense Systems, a Montana company that claims to have made 550 “wildfire responses on behalf of insurers,” including 255 in just the past two years. Right now in California, the company has 53 engines working to protect close to 1,000 homes.

The civil-liberties organization has taken a stand against stronger due-process protections in campus tribunals that undermines its own principles.

Last week, the NRA kept defending gun rights, the AARP kept advocating for older Americans, and the California Avocado Commission was as steadfast as ever in touting “nature’s highest achievement.” By contrast, the ACLU issued a public statement that constituted a stark, shortsighted betrayal of the organization’s historic mission: It vehemently opposed stronger due-process rights for the accused.

The matter began when Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos put forth new guidelines on how to comply with Title IX, the law that forbids colleges that receive federal funding to exclude any students, deny them benefits, or subject them to any discrimination on the basis of sex.

The most controversial changes concern what happens when a student stands accused of sexual misbehavior. “Under the new rules, schools would be required to hold live hearings and would no longer rely on a so-called single investigator model,” TheNew York Timesreports. “Accusers and students accused of sexual assault must be allowed to cross-examine each other through an adviser or lawyer. The rules require that the live hearings be conducted by a neutral decision maker and conducted with a presumption of innocence. Both parties would have equal access to all the evidence that school investigators use to determine facts of the case, and a chance to appeal decisions.” What’s more, colleges will now have the option to choose a somewhat higher evidentiary standard, requiring “clear and convincing evidence” rather than “a preponderance of the evidence” in order to establish someone’s guilt.

Their huge mounds cover an area the size of Britain, and are visible from space.

In the east of Brazil, mysterious cones of earth rise from the dry, hard-baked soil. Each of these mounds is about 30 feet wide at its base, and stands six to 13 feet tall. From the ground, with about 60 feet of overgrown land separating each mound from its neighbors, it’s hard to tell how many there are. But their true extent becomes dramatically clear from space.

Using satellite images, Roy Funch from the State University of Feira de Santana has estimated that there are about 200 million of these mounds. They’re arrayed in an uncannily regular honeycomb-like pattern. Together, they cover an area roughly the size of Great Britain or Oregon, and they occupy as much space as the Great Pyramid of Giza 4,000 times over. And this colossal feat of engineering is, according to Funch, the work of the tiniest of engineers—a species of termite called Syntermes dirus, whose workers are barely half an inch long.

At an international conference, allies grieved the loss of the United States they had believed in.

Updated at 2:50 p.m. ET on November 19, 2018

The Halifax Security Forum is designed to be a gathering of the world’s democratic countries, which are allied to protect each other. Hosted by the Canadian defense minister, the Forum’s signature is the brief videos that introduce the annual gathering. This year’s intro showed relay runners, mostly American, at the Olympics from Berlin in 1936 forward, ending in an uncertain baton handoff—a powerful metaphor for the free world’s worries about American leadership in the age of Trump.*

The Halifax Forum, occurring just after President Donald Trump unleashed yet another petulant tirade against Germany and France that culminated in the unseemly taunt that Parisians were speaking German until the U.S. intervened in World Wars I and II, had a funereal feel this year. Allies are grieving the loss of an America they believed in, as it sinks in that they cannot rely on us any longer.

Journalists have become complicit in spreading the president’s falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Here’s how they can do better.

The news media today face an epistemic crisis: how to publish the president’s commentary without amplifying his fabrications and conspiracy theories.

One flashpoint came several weeks ago, when President Donald Trump told Axios reporters that he planned to use an executive order to end birthright citizenship because, as he put it, “we’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen.” On Twitter, Axios CEO and co-founder Jim VandeHei wrote, “Exclusive: Trump to terminate birthright citizenship.”

As many journalists quickly pointed out, this was multilayered malarkey. The president was proposing an unconstitutional means of obliterating the Fourteenth Amendment on the basis of a falsehood; more than two dozen countries in the Western Hemisphere have unrestricted jus soli laws, like the U.S. Axios was treating as fact a haphazard plan, in search of an impossible outcome, justified by a false assertion.

Years later, many adults still pine for the days their school libraries, auditoriums, and gyms transformed into pop-up bookstores.

In the early 1980s, the world of school book fairs was “a highly competitive and very secretive industry,” according to a New York Timesarticleat the time. The fairs numbered in the thousands and spanned the United States. They were put on by a mix of organizers: A few national corporations, about 25 to 30 regional companies, and assorted bookstores.

By the 1990s, one organizer reigned: the Scholastic Corporation. Scholastic, founded in 1920 to publish books and magazines aimed at young readers, had purchased several of its smaller competitors. The company became the largest operator of children’s book fairs in the country, a title it still holds today.

But we’re not here to talk about Scholastic’s business history, and I think you know that. If you’re a young adult who attended elementary school in the United States, I’d guess that when you saw the headline on this story, something deep inside your mind cracked open. With an unmistakable pang of nostalgia,the memory of a Scholastic book fair, with all its concomitant joys, came flooding in.